So you might be surprised to get notified of a new blog entry. Here's the reason why:
I was rereading my old blog posts because some of my friends from SNC will finally be going over to Japan, four of them going to Tsuru, and one of them asked me to link them to this blog. Anyhow, I was reminded that there was an entry that I never released, from back in May 2012 in case it messes with the posting date. You can find the entry below. I'll also be linking to any blogs my friends start so that anyone so inclined can go read them. Until then I bid you adieu.
So readership of this blog has pretty much fallen off a cliff, understandably because I haven't posted on it in over a month. In fact, I've managed to not post anything at all in the entire month of May. So why do I have 63 pageviews two days ago, when every other day this week has around 2? Anyway, thanks for that, whoever that was.
This entry is a product of Nick asking me to make a new entry and my finally deciding--without additional reason--to do so. Hence it will not be covering any major/interesting events, probably.
Lately things have been... interesting I guess. While I've gotten to feel somewhat at home in Japan, homesickness still sometimes strikes, particularly when I remember that I perpetually have trouble sleeping here. I've gotten so used to small Earthquakes that I've ceased to mention them whenever they happen, and I usually continue whatever I'm doing and pay them no mind. In addition, I've gotten used to the challenges my limited language ability presents, and enjoy speaking two different languages on a regular basis, albeit one of them less skillfully. I've more or less decided to buy a text book to study over the summer, and hope that will suffice for the most part to satisfy my Japanese. That and perhaps Skyping with some of my closer friends. They're mostly the people I would want to talk to anyway. =P
Recently, I've started to try to read manga again. Between colorful language and a slew of words I just plain don't know, it's probably the most difficult Japanese exercise I do. The only thing that's possibly more difficult is the stories we read in what I think is supposed to be our history class, for the same reasons, plus the fact that a lot of the language is a little bit dated. At least the manga I happen to be reading is written in modern Japanese. -__-
(It's ハヤテのごとく (Hayate the Combat Butler) by the way, in case you were wondering. It's my favorite manga in Engish, but the Japanese volumes are currently much further along than the English. Because of that, the recently released "Volume Zero" comes in a boxed package with volume 32. Fearing that it might never be released in the US, I quickly bought it. Now I have absolutely no excuse. Now I need to learn enough Japanese to read all 32 volumes, and of course whatever comes after that. The difficulty doesn't matter.)
Wednesday, January 22, 2014
Saturday, April 28, 2012
A Shout Out to Joe
So Joe likes guardian statues. MOAR GUARDIAN STATUES!
Okay, so these ones weren't as impressive, but still. YEAH.
Okay, so these ones weren't as impressive, but still. YEAH.
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
NARA (Kyoto trip day two)
Due to my apparent decline in interest in blogging, this entry is coming so late that I only vaguely remember what happened that day. Thank goodness for pictures.
I do remember that as transportation planner I was a little bit dissatisfied with my own work. Train rides always seem to take longer and cost more money than anticipated. Thanks to one of the random people that assume we don't understand Japanese and need help with something--we run into this kind of person quite a lot, and they always walk the line between being really helpful and really obnoxiously rude--we were able to transfer trains correctly and arrive without too much trouble. Following that, we did the most logical thing possible: go straight to the nearest tourist information center.
You won't see any platypi smoking at THIS station, no sirree!
There we were met with the usual, "Ah! Westerners! They must therefore be American! Where's the English speaker?" who turned out to be actually very helpful. We ended up basing our route mostly on her suggestion, and enjoyed ourselves a lot.
Before I continue, a couple of general notes about Nara:
If you go to Kyoto for any decent length of time, you should go to Nara. It isn't very far away (an hour or so by train), the tourist destinations are closer together and hence it's easier to get around just by walking, there a plenty of tasty shops to find, and if you know anything about Nara, you probably know that it's famous for...
DEER! Lots and lots of tame deer that want to eat deer crackers at your expense. Unfortunately, since we had come during spring, we didn't get to see any antlers. All of the male deer just had odd looking stubs on the tops of their heads. Buu.
Then again, maybe it was safer that way. As the sign indicates, "Butt."
Though apparently this only happens to elderly ladies and little girls, so maybe we would have been fine.
There were also shrines, I guess.
This picture should give you an idea of the size. Although I admit Tina isn't very big, she's doing her best, so give her a hand.
We walked up these stairs, and although that isn't really ample reason to post a picture of them, I like it so I'm putting it here anyway:
From there we entered Nara Park through this large, red arch. (Okay, so it's not an arch. I can't remember it's name, but anyhow...)
As you may have guessed, Nara Park is the home of the majority of the deer in Nara, so we were good 'n ready to see us some deer.
Look at how excited Tina is with her senbei!
Little did we know, buying sembei attracts deer rather quickly, and that excitement quickly turned to fright on Tina's part. Unfortunately, since Tina was holding the camera, I don't have a picture of this, but let it suffice to say that when we turned around from taking the above picture, there were already four or five deer behind us that were eventually joined by a couple more. Tina frantically gave me her senbei and ran into a metaphorical corner, leaving me to feed the hungry deer. We were told the deer bow while asking for senbei, but I'm not sure if it counts when their head is already up against my leg. They're also fond of chomping, as the picture posted earlier indicated, to get peoples' attention.
I do remember that as transportation planner I was a little bit dissatisfied with my own work. Train rides always seem to take longer and cost more money than anticipated. Thanks to one of the random people that assume we don't understand Japanese and need help with something--we run into this kind of person quite a lot, and they always walk the line between being really helpful and really obnoxiously rude--we were able to transfer trains correctly and arrive without too much trouble. Following that, we did the most logical thing possible: go straight to the nearest tourist information center.
You won't see any platypi smoking at THIS station, no sirree!
There we were met with the usual, "Ah! Westerners! They must therefore be American! Where's the English speaker?" who turned out to be actually very helpful. We ended up basing our route mostly on her suggestion, and enjoyed ourselves a lot.
Before I continue, a couple of general notes about Nara:
If you go to Kyoto for any decent length of time, you should go to Nara. It isn't very far away (an hour or so by train), the tourist destinations are closer together and hence it's easier to get around just by walking, there a plenty of tasty shops to find, and if you know anything about Nara, you probably know that it's famous for...
DEER! Lots and lots of tame deer that want to eat deer crackers at your expense. Unfortunately, since we had come during spring, we didn't get to see any antlers. All of the male deer just had odd looking stubs on the tops of their heads. Buu.
Then again, maybe it was safer that way. As the sign indicates, "Butt."
Though apparently this only happens to elderly ladies and little girls, so maybe we would have been fine.
There were also shrines, I guess.
This picture should give you an idea of the size. Although I admit Tina isn't very big, she's doing her best, so give her a hand.
We walked up these stairs, and although that isn't really ample reason to post a picture of them, I like it so I'm putting it here anyway:
From there we entered Nara Park through this large, red arch. (Okay, so it's not an arch. I can't remember it's name, but anyhow...)
As you may have guessed, Nara Park is the home of the majority of the deer in Nara, so we were good 'n ready to see us some deer.
Look at how excited Tina is with her senbei!
Little did we know, buying sembei attracts deer rather quickly, and that excitement quickly turned to fright on Tina's part. Unfortunately, since Tina was holding the camera, I don't have a picture of this, but let it suffice to say that when we turned around from taking the above picture, there were already four or five deer behind us that were eventually joined by a couple more. Tina frantically gave me her senbei and ran into a metaphorical corner, leaving me to feed the hungry deer. We were told the deer bow while asking for senbei, but I'm not sure if it counts when their head is already up against my leg. They're also fond of chomping, as the picture posted earlier indicated, to get peoples' attention.
Mmmm, map.
This is where my memory gets fuzzy. I remember eating green tea flavored ice cream and lots and lots of deer, a giant Buddha statue, deer, and a surprisingly cheap, tasty restaurant. Look at the pictures and make up a story in your head.
The white stuff is some powerful sunbleaching from years gone by, I believe.
Do note the size, or it's not nearly as interesting.
This became more interesting when we found out that the model itself is over 100 years old.
A good view can be had from this temple.
Namely this one.
And last, but certainly not least:
WOAH.
Stay tuned for the last portion of the Kyoto Trip. You may want to shut off your set to conserve energy though. >.<
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
KYOTO - Day One
[ This entry includes: The Shinkansen, The Small World Guesthouse, and Conveyor Belt Sushi ]
Our trip to Kyoto began with us getting up at 7:30 to get on a train by 8:20, which thankfully we managed. There was minimal confusion on the way there, but we were able get to Tokyo station and get on the Shinkansen as planned. For those that don't know, the Shinkansen is Japan's bullet train, and runs at about 300km/h. (I guess this time I'll do the conversion for you. 300km/h is approximately 186 mph.) Using this, we were able to get to Kyoto in under two and a half hours. This is also where our picture taking spree started, which you'll be glad to know was quite extensive.
Note that this photo was taken from the inside of the hostel.
What would a hotel room be without a key? Especially one that looks like it's from an Indiana Jones film?
Oh, and there was a refrigerator too.
Now, having shown you all that, I would actually recommend this hostel to the adventurous. What made it all alright for me was the fact that the owner seemed like a really laid back, nice guy. Also, once you get over the initial shock of what the place looks like, if you let yourself, you'll realize that for the most part it's a comfortable place to stay. My only practical complaint is that the insulation is so poor that despite our kick-ass heater, it was pretty cold at night. If you come during warmer months, I would imagine that it's not so bad. He also rented bikes to us for what I assumed was a pretty cheap rate. He originally said 500 yen to rent the bike I would use and 300 for Tina's. Seeing three coins in Tina's hand and assuming it was 250, since the top one was a 50, he said that was fine. When he found out it was only 200, he shrugged and said that was fine too. Oh, and although he asked where we were planning to go, he didn't put a time limit on the rental or charge us anything extra based on the time we used them for.
By the way, we told him we were going to find food, but ended up parking the bikes in an underground bike parking structure, the like of which I have never seen before, riding a train to Kyoto Station, and hanging out there for quite a while. Oops.
The following pictures are courtesy of the sights around Kyoto station:
Fruit cake anyone?
Mmm...
An interesting walkway thing we found.
This is also about the part where I realized that the bottle of water I was drinking was called "Pungency." I'd like to think that there's a job for me somewhere to fix these sorts of things, but I don't think the Japanese really care, and I think the English speakers who visit the country enjoy the Engrish too much to ever make a big deal out of it.
This place was pretty awesome. It is here that I first found a bag of shredded cheese at a somewhat normal price that appeared appetizing. It is also here that we first tried conveyor belt sushi and that I first enjoyed playing DDR in Japan.
You can tell Tina took this picture.
Our trip to Kyoto began with us getting up at 7:30 to get on a train by 8:20, which thankfully we managed. There was minimal confusion on the way there, but we were able get to Tokyo station and get on the Shinkansen as planned. For those that don't know, the Shinkansen is Japan's bullet train, and runs at about 300km/h. (I guess this time I'll do the conversion for you. 300km/h is approximately 186 mph.) Using this, we were able to get to Kyoto in under two and a half hours. This is also where our picture taking spree started, which you'll be glad to know was quite extensive.
As you can see, the inside of a shinkansen looks somewhat like the inside of an Airplane. There's even little signs telling you to inform the train staff if you see any suspicious or unattended baggage.
Even the outside is a little bit reminiscent of one...
And upon our arrival in Kyoto we were greeted with this skyline:
...which we became all too familiar with, as the area around Kyoto station came to be a place we easily recognized over the next few days, I might even call it a spot of comfort. Getting to the first hostel was kind of crappy though. On that note, if you're traveling around in Japan, don't bother trying to use Google's directions. They don't make an ounce of sense once you get off the train. The directions I got to the second hostel said seven times in a row to just "Use the crosswalk." Am I walking around in a circle around the intersection? Is this screwy land? Seriously, don't even bother.
When we finally did reach the hostel, called in English, the "Small World Guesthouse," we were in for a bit of a surprise. The Small World Guesthouse of Kyoto is located in a small alleyway that I doubt even a Japanese car could fit into. At first we walked past it, but I think the owner heard our suitcase wheels...
We heard someone saying "Hallo! Hallo!" behind us, so we looked over and saw a guy with dreadlocks down to his knees. We looked back the way we had been going, and sure enough there was no one there. He was talked to us.
"Are you looking for the Small World Guesthouse?" he asks. We nod. He says, "This way please."
He then took us into the aforementioned alleyway and into a dimly lit, cramped foyer and asked us to write down our information on a sheet that included a line for passport number. WOAH.
Luckily, upon handing the sheet back, which listed our address as "Tsuru University" (except in Japanese of course) he asked if we were exchange students, and upon hearing that we were, said that our school ID's would be fine.
He then showed us around the place, which was as small and cramped as the foyer made it out to be. He asked me if Japanese was fine, and I told him yes, so he proceeded to explain everything to us in Japanese. Apparently my Japanese learning in Tsuru has been specifically tailored toward having inn amenities explained to me, because I understood every single thing he said. Mind you, this is extremely rare, even in casual conversation, possibly even a first considering how much he talked.
The building was extremely old, but outfitted with all of the basic amenities you might expect from a normal hotel and possibly even a few extra: shower, toilet, cooking area, sink, green tea, free shampoo and soap and the like. The difference was that these were all spread out throughout the hostel, basically wherever they happened to fit, the stove required a match to light it, the walkway to our room was protected with a tarp, the extent of the insulation on the old sliding window (It was like a sliding door, wood on wood) was foam strips on either side, and the bathroom had an incense stick and a lighter in lieu of air freshener.
AW YEAH
Three tatami room
The hallway at night - note on the right it opens up to the outside. That black slanted thing behind the shinier covering is the tarp. On the left was the group room I think.
What would a hotel room be without a key? Especially one that looks like it's from an Indiana Jones film?
Now, having shown you all that, I would actually recommend this hostel to the adventurous. What made it all alright for me was the fact that the owner seemed like a really laid back, nice guy. Also, once you get over the initial shock of what the place looks like, if you let yourself, you'll realize that for the most part it's a comfortable place to stay. My only practical complaint is that the insulation is so poor that despite our kick-ass heater, it was pretty cold at night. If you come during warmer months, I would imagine that it's not so bad. He also rented bikes to us for what I assumed was a pretty cheap rate. He originally said 500 yen to rent the bike I would use and 300 for Tina's. Seeing three coins in Tina's hand and assuming it was 250, since the top one was a 50, he said that was fine. When he found out it was only 200, he shrugged and said that was fine too. Oh, and although he asked where we were planning to go, he didn't put a time limit on the rental or charge us anything extra based on the time we used them for.
By the way, we told him we were going to find food, but ended up parking the bikes in an underground bike parking structure, the like of which I have never seen before, riding a train to Kyoto Station, and hanging out there for quite a while. Oops.
The following pictures are courtesy of the sights around Kyoto station:
Too bad these ones are fake...
Me being happy drinking a cup of coffee at Mr. Donut. Mr. Donut has VERY good coffee, and doughnuts for that matter.
Feast your eyes.
Twice.
A scooter arcade game.
And I can't really remember doing much else. The first day we didn't really engage in any heavy sight seeing, and the rest of the details are pretty much moot.
Coming up next in the Kyoto trip: Nara and DEEEEEER! See you again soon.
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